The Secret to Effective SEO

Jul 9th
by Aaron Wall
5 comments
posted in
marketing

Recently (maybe about three weeks ago) I began working on a brand new site idea for a client. Within two days his site was built (my designer is really fast and awesome). Within a week it was ranking well in Google for a fairly competitive commercial phrase with a respectible search volume (thousands of searches per day).

What did I do?

I picked a keyword rich site name and registered the site with a ton of directories.

There were some other forces at hand that I am not at liberty to discuss, but the primary driving force behind his rankings is about a few dozen directory links.

John Scott and I have been talking a bunch recently about the power of LINKS FROM UNIQUE IP ADDRESSES and he posted a good example recently in the V7N forums.

Obviously I have a ton more tips inside my SEO Book, but the condensed version is:

  • buy a keyword rich domain name
  • list it in a ton of directories using those keywords
  • write articles and figure out other ways to get links into your site

There are a ton of other things to consider, but for most industries the web is so non competitive that just the above few steps can go a long way.

Are External Links More Important than Internal Links (for SEO)?

I know most people reading this already know the answer, but I just came across a quick example, so hopefully some people asking this question at a search engine will find this.

Recently I posted a post called "The Daniel Brandt Toolbar" and around a half dozen or so sites linked to me.

Almost every page in this site links to the "Buy Now" page so that when people search for SEO Book they see the home page first and then the "Buy Now" page listed second.

(As of writing this) when you search Google for "SEO Book" you now see my home page first and the "Daniel Brandt Toolbar" page second. It will change in a few days, but this does a good job to show how external links are often more powerful SEO tool than internal links are.

Give it about a few more days for the posts linking into the Daniel Brandt Toolbar to fall into the archives of other blogs and my "Buy Now" page will list again at #2.

Daniel Brandt's Web Spammer Toolbar

Jul 8th
by Aaron Wall
0 comments
posted in
seo tools

<Update> In a fit of irony, Daniel Brandt (Mr screen scraper himself) blocked his tool from this site.
Since the tool is broken because Daniel Brandt's childish behaviour I can only offer you a link to more information about Daniel Brandt.
</Update>

For those who want the good data without letting people know who they are. Get Google PageRank, Yahoo! Backlinks, & Alexa traffic rating while remaining a secret squirrel.

Enter a URL:


  


no cookies   |   no search-term records   |   access log deleted after 7 days

Seth Godin Hates SEO

Jul 5th
by Aaron Wall
1 comment
posted in
articles

Recently on his blog Seth Godin had a post titled The problem with search engine optimization.

In this post he stated why he thought SEO was not a good idea and why he strugled with the concept of SEO. He stated that he thought PPC was a way better idea than organic SEO. He also stated that top organic results were nothing more than luck.

If you glance at Seth's success you will see that it comes from links (and other word of mouth type marketing) and not PPC ads, which makes it even more confusing to think that he would think ads are way better than SEO (which often consists of finding and creating natural citations).

I think he is completely wrong, and thus I wrote SEO vs PPC: Seth is Completely Wrong!

They also have a good post going on over at Cre8asite on the topic.
hat tip Kim

  • Over 100 training modules, covering topics like: keyword research, link building, site architecture, website monetization, pay per click ads, tracking results, and more.
  • An exclusive interactive community forum
  • Members only videos and tools
  • Additional bonuses - like data spreadsheets, and money saving tips
We love our customers, but more importantly

Our customers love us!

New MSN Search Technology Trial, New MSN Search Format

Jul 1st
by Aaron Wall
0 comments
posted in
yahoo
msn
ask jeeves
internet

Wow, July is already here...

New Look MSN
MSN launched their new look MSN search engine results page. Now they clearly separate ads and organic listings.

How Other Search Engines Look
Google has always done this and Yahoo! started testing mid June and will release the new look soon. This leaves one to Ask Jeeves when they intend to dump the 10 ad blended serp technique.

While Asking Jeeves...
MicroSoft has not publicly stated any great interest, but

Ask Jeeves President Steve Berkowitz suggested he might be open to deal if it was in the interests of the company's shareholders, although he did not comment directly on any offers coming from Microsoft. - source

New MSN Search Features
In addition MSN has added a drop down box to allow people to search for specific things such as movies or news. Elsewhere MSN added its search technology preview to the MSN sandbox.

Paid Inclusion is Garbage

MSN also decided to filter out their paid inclusion search results. (time to edit my ebook again) "We really we want customers to feel the best about the results being served," MSN's Grothaus said.

Google"It's hard to be sure that the end result of the algorithm would be the same and that everyone is being treated fairly," Google's Silverstein said of allowing paid inclusion.

Ask Jeeves"We will continue to get better at crawling," said Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves. "The value proposition of Site Submit has ceased to exist."

More Paid Inclusion is Garbage / Bad Press for Yahoo!
Recently a person I consulted in the past had some of their Yahoo! listings disappear overnight (and from my talking to many other SEOs this is becoming somewhat common). After paying for inclusion into Overture Site Match, my friend's site still does not show up for terms he has shown up for ever since the inception of Yahoo! Search.

He sent them a request question and they gave him a complete crap form letter response that suggested he visit WebmasterWorld to learn more about SEO.

There horrific customer service and near complete disapproval toward the program from SEOs and webmasters has Yahoo! considering dumping or changing the program. (or at least that is what credible sources say)

While I am Picking on Yahoo!
Does anyone know what this is?
RENAMEDBYADMWHILEHIDDENTOALLOWDUPLICATEACCELERATORS

Amazon Switches from Google to A9

Jun 14th
by Aaron Wall
5 comments
posted in
internet

Amazon now using Google A9

Amazon has switched it's search from Google to A9. Not really sure if that will make much difference to you or me, but if you like the color brown it is surely a good thing.

The Register also noted that sometimes Amazon's related products may not be related to what you are searching for.

Mac Google Toolbar w PageRank

Jun 6th
by Aaron Wall
4 comments
posted in
seo tools

Finally!!!

For those of you with a Mac who are angry at the PageRank gods for not giving you PageRank in your Googlebar there is now a free toolbar PageRank hack created by Nick Stallman.

I am a Windows fool so I have not tried it out. I think my next computer might be a Mac though...

(found on SearchGuild blog)

Google AdWords Guidelines

Jun 5th
by Aaron Wall
0 comments
posted in
google

Some Automated Bots are off the mark. When I linked into my page about Traffic Power & Cold Call SEO Google decided to reject the ad because I did not state my affiliate status? Clearly this was the action of an automated bot or a person who did not look at the page...I know that sometimes they do review pages because one time on my other site they sent me an email about a page for speaking of the AdSense ads which "were off to the side." Clearly though this is not an affiliate ad...

Campaign: 'Campaign #16,' Ad Group: 'Traffic Power'
----------------------------------------------

AD TEXT:

Cold Call SEO is Bad
Were you recently cold called by
someone selling SEO services?
SEObook.com/cold-call-seo-facts

Action taken: Suspended - Pending Revision
Issue(s): Identify Affiliate Status

Free A/B Split Test Tool

Jun 4th
by Aaron Wall
0 comments
posted in
seo tools

Some of the best tools are both simple and free. We recently released a free A/B split testing calculator.

This tool gives you the mathematical probablility to determine whether or not you have collected enough data to be sure the data is conclusive as to which of two ads is better.

Link Appeal Tool

Jun 3rd
by Aaron Wall
0 comments
posted in
seo tools

The Link Appeal Tool has link appeal since I am linking to it. I think I used the word link to much...anyway here is the link.

This is another one of Will's cool free tools over at Webmaster Toolkit. It looks at the PageRank of a page as well as the number of outgoing links on that page to give you a guestimate of how much value that link would have to help you decide whether or not it is worth going after.

Text Link Advertising on Blog Websites

Jun 2nd
by Aaron Wall
1 comment
posted in
marketing

I have noticed that there is some really really cheap traffic and link popularity to be purchased on blog websites.

Some sites get tons of pageviews, and some have tons of link popularity. Some blogs have both and prices that do not cost the farm.

If you look through an article about the most famous blogs in the world you can see just how cheap this ad space is selling.

The first blog is a lawyer blog and the second site listed is the New York Times, but if you scroll past them you can see some pretty cheap ads.

Gawker is one of the most famous blogs on the web (and it costs $400 / month or $150 / week). I am probably not going to be advertising on the Gawker website today, but currently someone is with a Texas Holdem website.

I am sure that link is probably cheap for someone in the gaming industry. Those affiliate checks online casinos send you can get fat. I had one page from when I first started learning about the web that got me a few grand without me actively promoting it...

If you used the right political message or were marketing an amazing idea the cheap entry price of advertising on Gawker could easily pay for itself tenfold.

Once you look at some of the slightly less popular blogs the price drops sharply. Advertising on one of the top NanoBot site is $60 / month.

Some second and third tier blogs are priced dirt cheap. I think the two biggest players in the blog ad arena are:
http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/
http://www.blogads.com/
There are also some smaller players too, such as
http://www.textads.biz/

I may soon promote a stupid idea I just came up with :) More on that later...I thinking...

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